Its magical qualities are recounted in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature. The single existing manuscript of the Song of Roland in Old French is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
According to local folklore in Rocamadour, in the Lot department of France, Durendal was embedded in a cliff wall in the town. It was a major tourist site in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne whose sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary has attracted pilgrims for centuries from many countries, among them kings, bishops and nobles.
Medieval “myth” has it that before it was given to Roland, Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel. Before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland is said to have tried in vain to break it on the rocks to prevent his enemies from seizing it. He finally threw it into the air to save it. Miraculously travelling hundreds of kilometres, it is said to have embedded itself in the rock face of Rocamadour.